Unconstitutional Intrusions in the Disguise of
Religion

Roman
Catholic Bishop Daniel Jenky, of Peoria, Ill., ordered all
parish priests in his diocese to read a letter to their
congregations condemning Barack Obama. The letter, to be
read the weekend before the election, declared that Obama
and the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate had launched an
“assault upon our religious freedom.”

He wasn’t the
only priest who used the pulpit to attack the President.
Bishop David Lauren of Green Bay, Wisc., told his
congregations that voting for Obama and other candidates who
were pro-choice or who believed in embryonic stem cell
research or gay marriage could put their “soul in
jeopardy.” Others, primarily from evangelical Protestant
faiths, were even more adamant in their religious
intolerance, declaring that voting for Obama would
definitely condemn their souls to Hell.

Southern Baptist
evangelist Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham,
said President Obama was “waving his fist before God” by
supporting same-sex marriage and women’s abortion rights.
In full-page newspaper ads, shortly before the election, the
94-year-old Billy Graham, whose words may have been written
by his son, declared that Americans should vote for
“candidates who base their decisions on biblical
principles.” Those principles, according to the ad,
include opposition to same-sex marriage. A spokesman for the
Grahams said that neither person endorses candidates.
However, Billy Graham reportedly told Romney he would do
“all I can to help you,” and removed Mormonism from a
list of cults on one of their web pages. In February,
Franklin Graham, who earns about $600,000 a year as head of
the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, declared that
Obama had plans to create “a new nation without God or
perhaps under many gods.”

The re-election of President
Obama didn’t stop the attacks. The Rev. Jerry Priscano, a
Catholic priest from Erie, Pa., said Obama was the
anti-Christ. On his Facebook page, he declared, “It will
only be a matter of time before our nation is completely
destroyed,” and that Hurricane Sandy, apparently a sign
from God to the liberal northeast, “was only the
beginning.”

A Pew Forum study of the 2012 vote showed
that white Catholics favored Romney (59%–40%), Hispanic
Catholics overwhelming supported Obama (75–21). Romney
also had the evangelical Christians (79–20), and other
Protestants (57–42). Although Romney pandered to Jewish
voters, claiming he would be Israel’s best friend, and
that Obama couldn’t be trusted, Jews went for Obama
(69–30). The Pew exit poll measured only persons who
identified themselves as Jews or Christians.

Factoring
into the vote against Barack Obama is religious bigotry that
drips with the hatred of anything not Christian. About
one-fourth of all White evangelical Protestants believe he
is a Muslim, although the President goes to a Protestant
church and has never held Muslim values or beliefs. In one
of the great leaps of faith, evangelicals also believe Obama
is a “godless socialist Muslim,” something much rarer
than a Klan leader voting for a Black Jew for president.
Overall, about one-sixth of Americans believe he is Muslim,
according to a poll by Public Religion Research Institute.
Ironically, most evangelical Protestants also believe
Mormonism is a non-Christian cult and refused to support
Mitt Romney in the primaries. Faced by a “Muslim” and a
Mormon in the general election, the evangelicals supported
the Mormon, who had flip-flopped from moderate to
conservative to get the nomination and then tried tacking
slightly to the center for the general election.

The
right-wing believe that America is a Christian nation and
should elect only like-minded Christians to office. Even
many Christian religions, such as Unitarianism, are suspect
in the eyes of those who absolutely believe they absolutely
know God’s intent, and everyone else is wrong. They
support Israel, far closer to being a socialist nation than
the U.S. ever will be, as a Biblical necessity, but would be
conflicted if a Jew should ever become a major party
candidate for president.

The religious bigots claim the
U.S. was founded by Christians and is a Christian
nation—or, reluctantly, say it is a Judeo-Christian
nation. But, no matter how much they screech, the facts
don’t support their beliefs. George Washington declared,
“The government of the United States is not in any sense
founded on the Christian religion.” John Adams and the
Senate later ratified a treaty with those exact words.

Most of the Founding Fathers were primarily deists, not
Christians, and specifically rejected many Christian
beliefs, including the virgin birth, the resurrection of
Jesus, and that the Bible was written by God. They also
believed that God, having given mankind the power of reason,
then stayed out of the lives of His people. Among the deists
were Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Monroe.
But they and the other Founding Fathers were explicit in
their declaration, embedded into the First Amendment that
established the principle that all people had a right to
their own religious beliefs.

Several distinguished
historians (including Drs. James McGregor Burns and Richard
Hofstadter, each of whom won the Pulitzer Prize for history)
have pointed out that in 1776 and much of the 19th century,
as much as 90 percent of the population did not identify
with the Christian church.

There is another aspect to the
First Amendment, often overlooked by those who don’t know
history or Constitutional law, yet believe they do.
Jefferson, in his first year as president, in a letter to a
Baptist congregation, referred to the intent of one of the
five parts of the First Amendment as “building a wall of
separation between church and state.” Numerous times, the
Founding Fathers had reaffirmed this separation, creating
what became known as the “establishment clause” in 1787.
Several rulings by the Supreme Court reaffirmed this
doctrine. Article VI of the Coinstitution specifically
forbids religious tests as a requirement for political
office.

However, 28 percent of Americans, according to a
First Amendment Center poll in February, don’t believe
there is a Constitutional separation of church and state.
The Constitutionally-ignorant have established religious
tests for persons seeking political office. It should make
no difference if Mitt Romney is a Mormon. It should also
make no difference if Barack Obama is or is not a Muslim,
Protestant, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Pagan, Vodun,
Vodouist, or even an atheist.

But it may be a Hindu,
Gandhi, who has last the last word. Discussing his
experience with missionaries in South Africa, he said, “I
like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. Your
Christians are so unlike your Christ.” He was specific in
his dislike for some, but not all, Christians. He had never
met the extreme
right-wing.

*************

Walter Brasch is an award-winning syndicated
columnist. His latest book is Before the First Snow:
Stories from the Revolution, which looks at religion and
social
issues.

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